Blog post on show's treatment of Abbie of late

I see why you would think this might stir some passionate debate so yes I think its in the right forum.

I gotta say I agree mostly... eh, okay no, I don't really believe Abbie is a sidekick. To me she is living breathing heart of the show and it simply wouldn't work without her and I do think that isn't just fan wank on my part but it is actually there in show's structure and writing.

But with that said, the show can do better. It needs to do better. Right now, Abbie is in this weird middle ground and has been put there for way too long where she is essential but she isn't driving the plot and that can cause a lot of people to diminish her importance.

Like I can see the setup for that to change but lbr that setup existed in season one and nothing has come of it but a few crumbs. I personally think they planned Abbie to take on a greater role earlier this season but pulling her out of purgatory early, blessing that it was, also had the unintended effect of pushing back the Mama Mills storyline and in turn the why Abbie is a witness storyline and probably even the why Moloch wanted her soul storyline (though I half expect that might never come up again).

If I'm really optimistic I might even go so far to say they filled that vacuum with Crane Family drama so the could get it mostly out of they way quick and dirty. The whole thing is a gamble though and I'm not sure it will pay off honestly.

I don't know, try not to generalize Ichabbie shippers. Those that are Abbie-stans in my experience are especially hard to pin down. Like a lot of them are multi-shippers (though the bar is set pretty high). And they are constantly talking and worrying about Abbie being sidelined by Crane family drama which you know includes Ichabod so he isn't immune. A lot them are quick to rightfully point out Ichabod's faults too. as well as Abbie looking increasingly like the Cranes' 'self sacrificing' black female friend which is such a gross trope. And I've been hearing and making these complaints on fan forum and tumblr since Season One and have actually seen really active fans go quiet over the hiatus and then just not come back once Season two rolled around and yes they were Ichabbie shippers too... back in those days we all were.

On the other hand there are Ichabod-stans who tend to ship him with Abbie because the chemistry is that scorching hot and then pay little heed to anything else. So not saying that doesn't happen but what are you gonna do.

I guess it easy to see us all waving the Ichabbie banner and assume we are all content with Abbie getting Crane and little else. But I think for Abbie-stans it is mostly pragmatism because we knew that the show cannot survive without the both of them on the screen interacting (we meant as partners of course and on equal footing, I'm still in the we'll see crowd but I get the frustration that they are still struggling with this). Ichabbie is the show's strongest selling point and for a long time it felt like TPTB just didn't get that very basic point. And you know, no show = no Abbie, no show = no Nicole being beamed into America's living room every night. And both of those things are actually incredibly important so we had to prioritize.

TLDR: The nuance is there. Most Nicole fans have never been content with her just getting Crane but the Ichabbie backslash, the show not knowing it own strengths, and pragmatism has kinda funneled energy into Ichabbie early on, but in my mind issues Abbie's centrality of the story has almost always been wrapped up in that.